


Burning Love

by nickiinator



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Eventual Smut, F/M, Fairy Tail Dragon Slayers, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Lucy and Natsu in heat, Mating Bond, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Protective Natsu Dragneel, dragon slayers go through mating cycles and it cause a few problems, natsu is horny on main
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-06
Updated: 2021-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-16 22:48:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28589811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nickiinator/pseuds/nickiinator
Summary: Natsu’s skin was burning, more so than usual. It felt like the fire in his gut was trying to melt him from the inside out and he wasn’t sure how much more he could take. He needed his mate, he needed his Lucy if his skin, his insides, were going to cool down. But Natsu was worried he was going to melt Lucy in the process.Little does he know that Lucy is burning too.
Relationships: Natsu Dragneel/Lucy Heartfilia
Comments: 14
Kudos: 86





	1. Wandering Thoughts

Natsu’s skin was burning, more so than usual. It felt like the fire in his gut was trying to melt him from the inside out and he wasn’t sure how much more he could take. He needed his mate, he needed his Lucy if his skin, his insides, were going to cool down. But Natsu was worried he was going to melt Lucy in the process.

A Few Weeks Earlier

Winter in Magnolia was going to be the end of Lucy Heartfilia. It was so cold it burned where it touched her bare skin, and if it weren’t for rent being due she probably wouldn’t have even taken this job. She wished she could have some of Natsu’s warmth, she though as she stared at the back of the dragon slayer ahead of her, admiring the muscles of his shoulders as her gaze slid down his arms Lucy started to think about how it would feel to be in them. ‘nope nope NOPE, not going down that road right now.’  
“Hey Luce, you okay?” Natsu turns and asks only for Lucy to ram straight into him, bumping their heads together. Lucy steps back and puts a hand to her forehead before looking up at Natsu, who is completely unfazed and staring at her, concerned. She met his gaze and a slight flush crawled up her neck and into her face, and she looked away quickly.  
“I’m fine, just trying not to think about how cold I am. It’s freezing!!” she explained, hoping it would be enough to get Natsu to stop looking at her like that. It felt like she was going to melt under his discerning gaze, ‘since when is he so intense??’ “Not all of us are fire dragons you know!”  
“Well shit Lucy, you should’ve just said so! Come ‘ere.” Natsu grabbed her arm and pulled her close to his side, moving his arm so that it wrapped around her shoulders. Lucy almost moaned from the warmth (and barely held it in), Natsu looked at her again and asked “That better?” she replied with a simple nod, “Alrighty then.” and so they continued on with their job, and Lucy tried her best not to think about the feeling of Natsu’s powerful arm around her, holding her close to him and Natsu (unknown to Lucy) did his best not to think too much about how soft Lucy’s skin is or how good she smelled that day (and every day).  
—————————  
Natsu was carrying Lucy back to the Inn with an urgency he wasn’t sure he had felt before. He didn’t entirely understand why, they had all been in worse shape, had worse injuries, and yet seeing Lucy’s mangled foot and the way she shivered filled him with a sense of despair and worry. It wasn’t like they had been in a fight with anyone, but while walking across an icy lake to do some Ice Fishing (they promised to bring some back for Happy) and Lucy had fallen through into the frozen waters while he tried to make a hole in said ice to do the aforementioned fishing. Natsu had rushed forward to save her, angry at himself for not making sure he stayed closer to her side, and now as they hurried back to the Inn he tried his best to keep Lucy warm, to keep the cold and the frost from getting to her.  
The second they made it to the Inn Natsu set Lucy down on the bed and wrapped a blanket around her, and moved to the bathroom to start a hot bath so he could help her warm up.  
“Natsu you don’t have to do that, i’ll be fine.” Lucy called from the other room, but he ignored it and started digging through the first aid supplies to see if there was anything her could do for her fucked up foot. He soon realized there wasn’t much he could do until they knew just how bad it was. But warming Lucy up came first. ‘FUCK. this is all my fault, i should’ve been closer to her, i could have prevented this.’  
“Natsu?” he whipped around to see Lucy right behind him, still wrapped in the blanket. Had he been so wrapped up in his thoughts that he didn’t hear her stumble into the bathroom?  
“Luce you shouldn’t be walking on that foot, you might be making it worse,” Natsu stood up from his position crouched over the first aid and turned towards her. He looked at her face, full of worry and confusion and stepped forward, stooped down and put his hand on her forehead, checking for a temperature. “Lucy? What’s wrong? Are ya running a fever?”  
“No. I called your name several times and you didn’t respond, I was worried about you dummy!!” She stepped back out of his grasp and winced at the pain in her foot. Natsu grabbed her arms to steady her, he could feel the muscle beneath her soft skin from all the training she had been doing lately. Lucy was always worried that she wasn’t strong enough, that she held everyone else back. She was wrong of course, he thought she was one of the strongest mages he would ever know.  
“Shit. Sorry Lucy,” Natsu said as he let go of her arms and scratched the back of his head, flashing her a grin. “I just wanna make sure you’re okay ya know, and the bath should be filled by now! So let's get you on in there!” He said as he pushed Lucy onto the stool next to the tub, removing the blanket from Lucy and tossing back it into the room before kneeling down to untie her boots. Taking them off as gently as possible and putting them aside, then peeling off her almost frozen socks.  
“Whoah what are you doing??” Lucy exclaimed, shocked and a little flustered.  
“Well you can’t really take a bath fully clothed, and you can’t get in on your own with your foot so i’m helping. Duh.”  
“I can undress myself thank you very much!!” she said as she snatched up her legs, placing them on the stool with her.  
“It’s fiiiiine, I’ve seen you naked a bunch of times! It’s nothing new.” Natsu flashed her a silly grin, hoping to lighten the mood a little. This tension was too thick and he was trying to distract his own mind from the thought of Lucy’s naked body, the curve of her waist or the way her thighs spilled over her thigh high socks or the - ‘NO! Bad Natsu!! We need to make sure Lucy is okay, we shouldn’t be thinking about that right now!!’ Lucy flashed him an incredulous look, and he sighed, “Alright alright, I’ll turn around while get undressed and then I’ll close my eyes when I help you in and out of tub. Does that work?” Now it was Lucy’s turn to sigh, as she gave in to the fact that Natsu was determined to play nurse to her all night.  
“Yeah that should work, now turn around and no peeking, I don’t care how fucked my foot is I will still kick you into next week.” She spun her finger around, and he did as she said, turning away and chuckling while doing his best to tune out the sounds of her clothes sliding over her smooth skin and hitting the floor. It didn’t work, damn his draconic hearing. “Okay, close your eyes and help me into the tub seems how you’re so insistent on being my nurse.” Natsu turned back around with his eyes screwed shut, and used his other senses to find Lucy. He found her easily and lifted her up bridal style and set her down in the hot water, as she hissed a little at the heat. Turning back around and opening his eyes Natsu started to leave the bathroom until Lucy called out to him.  
“Wait! I- uh, I don’t really want to be alone right now. Can you stay?” Her face was red when he spun to look at her, looking her in the eyes and avoiding looking any further.  
“Of course Luce, whatever you need though I don’t know about you but I’m starving. How about I go grab us some grub real quick and we can eat while you warm up?” Lucy nodded, her hands resting over her chest as she stuck her injured foot out of the hot water to rest it on the side of the tub. “Sweet! See ya in a sec!!” With that, Natsu turned and rushed out of the bathroom and the room altogether in search of some food, face flushed and his hands clenching as he tried to rid them of the feeling of Lucy’s bare skin against them.  
—————————  
Lucy sunk her head below the steaming water, hoping it would clear her head before Natsu came back. ‘Why did I ask him to stay with me?? Where the fuck did THAT come from? I suppose that almost drowning in freezing cold water can make anyone want company, but if only it was that innocent!! All I can think about is his hands as he carried me into the bath just now, or the way that he knelt before me to take off my boots and the feel of his hands as they pulled off my soc- NO!! we need to clear our head before he gets back’ Speak of the devil, just as Lucy peeked her head above water Natsu came back with a tray stacked with food, his scarf wrapped around his eyes as a blindfold.  
“Lucy!! I’m back with food!” he said as he set the tray on the stool next to the tub and sat down next to it with his back pressed against the tub. Natsu took off the blindfold and grabbed a sandwich from the tray and held it out for her, “Cream cheese and apple, your favorite right?”  
“Yeah! Thanks Natsu, I haven’t had one in forever. Though I’ll admit I am craving some-“  
“Bacon, right?” Natsu interjected, passing her a couple pieces of crispy bacon.  
“…yeah. How did you know?” It wasn’t like bacon was something she had cravings for often, and it was almost felt like Natsu read her mind. Oh stars she hoped he couldn’t read her mind. She would have a lot of explaining to do. He took a massive bite of some sort of deli sandwich and shrugged.  
“Dunno,” he said, mouth still full. “Just had a feeling that was what you needed so I nabbed some.” Swallowing loudly, he went on as if it was nothing out of the ordinary, and Lucy decided to follow suit and shrugged it off as best she could. It wasn’t like weird stuff didn’t happen to them all the time. This is probably no different.  
“So, how mad do you think Happy is gonna be that we went on a job without him?” She already knew the answer but was hoping a change of subject will help bring back a sense of normalcy. Thankfully, Natsu seemed to take the bait and went along with it.  
“I think he’ll be more upset when we don’t bring back any ice fish for him like we promised to. Who knew ice fishing could be so hard?” Natsu laughed, thinking about how his tom cat best friend is gonna react when they get back.  
“Maybe we can buy him something from the market and hope he doesn’t notice the difference.” Immensely relieved at the ease coming back into her chest as the tension melted away, giving way to a years long friendship and the closeness that came with it. As they laughed and ate, Lucy in the bath and Natsu sitting on the floor with his back pressed against it like it was the most natural thing. With them, anything would be okay as long as they had each other and Lucy didn’t know what she would do if she ever lost him. She almost did once, and it was the worst pain she had ever felt. Never again.


	2. Best Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone else notice differences in Natsu and Lucy's relationship before they do.

Lucy winced as Wendy twisted her foot and moved it one way and then the other, checking her flexibility so she could see just how badly Lucy injured herself. Lucy hadn’t even been home yet, Natsu had carried her straight to the guild hall and plopped her down on a table and waved over the Sky Dragon Slayer to check her out.He had insisted on carrying her all the way back to guild, and they had joked the entire way making Lucy laugh so hard she almost forgot about the pain in her foot. It was a wonder that the entire guild wasn’t over here fussing over her as they usually do, though it was quickly solved as Lucy noticed the way Natsu was hovering over them, in an almost possessive manner. Wendy stood up and brushed off her skirt, giving a little sigh of relief.

“Well! It isn’t too bad, its just a slight fracture in the ankle and thankfully after some healing I should be able to heal the bone enough that it’ll just be a sprain. But you will need to stay off of it for a week or so,” When Wendy was healing she tended to seem older, more mature almost. It was easy to forget that the dragon slayer was only 16 (technically 416 but still), and Lucy thought back to the frightened little girl they met so many years ago. _‘She’s grown so strong lately I can’t believe it.’_ Wendy turned to her fellow dragon slayer and said “Natsu, can you take Lucy home and I’ll meet you both there? I need to grab some supplies from my room and Lucy would probably be more comfortable in her own room.” Natsu nodded and spun so that Lucy could grab onto his back again and soon he was flashing Wendy a toothy grin before setting off to Lucy’s apartment.

————————

**Back at the Guild**

Levy turned to her mate, seeing the stern look on his face she realized he was thinking the same thing she was. She looked up at him and tapped his shoulder, startling him from his thoughts and he caught her brown eyes with his red ones.

“Gajeel, you don’t think that Natsu is- you know?” The iron dragon slayer looked away and watched his fellow dragon slayer pick up Lucy again and walk back out of the guild hall.

“Going through Heat? Not yet, it doesn’t seem like he and bunnygirl have swapped spit yet. She still smells like herself,” Gajeel looked back at Levy, remembering what it was like when they had gone through the same thing earlier that year when they had kissed for the first time after he officially turned 21. “Though it does look like he’s chosen her as his mate. Whether it was a conscious decision I have no idea, but that’s what it looks like.” She cast a worried look in the direction of Natsu and Lucy, and Gajeel looked around quickly to make sure no one was looking before giving his mate a kiss on the forehead. “Don’t worry, Salamander may be an idiot but I don’t think even he could screw this up. They’ll be alright.” he whispered into her skin, taking in a deep breath, reveling in her scent slightly mixed in with his own. Levy closed her eyes and sighed, whether in relief or worry he wasn’t sure yet.

“They better be. Do you think Natsu even _knows_ about going into heat? I mean there was a lot we didn’t know when it happened,” Levy slipped her small hand into Gajeel’s own, “Should I tell Lucy about it? Make sure she’s informed about -well- all of this?” She gestured to the both of them as if to emphasize her point. Levy really was worried about Lulu, both her and Natsu can be pretty dense.

“You, little lady,” Gajeel grabbed her chin and looked down at her, sliding his hand so he cupped her cheek. “Aren’t to tell them a thing, if blondie wants to come ask for help then that’s fine. But we should leave them to their business.” His mate pouted a little but inevitably agreed, and Gajeel pressed a quick kiss to her adorable little pout and let go of her face. Catching a whiff of what his actions did to his mate, it was taking all his strength not to drag her home right then and there. But he knew that she would be too concerned for bunny girl to go for it. This better not get in the way of his sex life or else Salamander was going to find himself missing some very important parts.

—————————

Finally making it back to her apartment, Natsu kicked the door shut behind him and kneeled down in front of Lucy’s bed. Sliding off his back and onto her plush bed, Natsu stood and spun around to look at her, catching a peek of her stomach as her shirt rode up when she raised her arms above her head with a satisfied sigh. Her abdomen was toned, and there was a slight incline of the muscles pointing towards her hips and Natsu had to look away before his gaze went any further.

“Hey Luce, want anything to eat while we wait for Wendy?” That’s it. Food should distract him from the thought of what her torso would feel like under his hands, sliding up her shirt to feel more of her or what her soft thighs felt like as he carried her. “I’m starving from carrying you for so long.” Natsu laughed as he strode into the tiny kitchen and digging through her cupboards for any snacks.

“You didn’t have to carry me you know!! Virgo could’ve done it just fine!!!” Lucy yelled at him from her place in the bedroom. Natsu peeked his head around the corner at her and stuck out his tongue.

“Do you want food or not Luce?” Lucy looked up and stuck her tongue out at him in response to his own. “Alright, guess I’ll just eat everything in the house without you, even the bottle of strawberry soda you have hidden in the back of the fridge.” He dug around and grabbed just the thing he was talking about, opening it up as he waltzed into her room and taking a sip for emphasis.

“HEY!! How did you know about that?!” She quickly sat up and made like she was going to stand up to try to grab the soda from him, but he held out a hand and laughed. “Give me my strawberry soda you ass! Don’t you dare drink it all!”

“Relax Luce, it was only a baby little teeny tiny sip,” Natsu put his fingers close together to show her just how small his sip was. “There’s still plenty for you if you ask nicely.” Smirking at her as she pouted angrily at him, flashing his fangs in her favorite smile knowing it would soften her up.

“It’s mine! I shouldn’t have to ask!” Natsu held the soda back up to his lips like he was going to drink more and Lucy held out her hands in protest. “No no no! Fine. May I PLEASE have the rest of MY strawberry soda?” folding her hands together and batting her long eyelashes at him as if she was the picture of innocence. In that moment Natsu wanted nothing more than to defile that innocence, make her beg for him. Flustered he rushed forward and gave her the soda, hoping to get the image out of his head of Lucy pinned underneath him as he teased her until she begged for his cock. “Yes!! This hits the spot, thanks Natsu!” She smiled up at him, completely unaware of his thoughts as she took a sip of her prize.

“Yeah, no prob Luce.” she looked at him with concern at his flat tone, but he was saved from any questioning as Wendy knocked on the front door. “That’s Wendy! Lemme go let her in.” he said as he practically ran from the room. But before he could even get to the door, Happy burst in crying and flying straight past him into Lucy’s arms. Wendy and Carla came in afterwards, the female cat embarrassed at her fellow exceed’s behavior. Natsu gestured for them to follow him to Lucy’s room, and so the three of them went. Lucy smiled awkwardly at them as Happy was holding her and crying into her bosom, apologizing and saying that it was all his fault she got hurt.

“Sorry about that,” Wendy explained as she rubbed the back of her neck with a shy smile. “Once Happy heard about your foot he rushed off insisting it was all his fault and we couldn’t stop him.” Walking over to the bed and kneeling down in front of her, Wendy grabbed Lucy’s foot as gently as possible. Her nose twitched as if she smelled something weird, but Natsu ignored it as he watched Lucy’s face for any reaction.

“It’s okay, I’m used to it from these two at this point.” Lucy said with a sigh, petting the tom cat’s head and Natsu was almost jealous of him. He had no idea why, but it made him kinda angry to see Happy cuddled up to Lucy like that, that’s where HE should be. Wait. What. It was just Happy, what was he so upset about?

“I’m going to start healing your ankle and it may hurt a little.” Wendy looked up at the celestial mage as she nodded in response, giving the go-ahead to start. When Lucy winced from the pain Natsu wanted nothing more than to dash forward and hold her, he would do anything to make it stop, it felt like his life depended on it. But the wince of pain was soon replaced with a sigh of relief as Wendy’s magic did its work. The little dragon slayer reached over to the basket of supplies she had brought with her and pulled out a little roll of bandages, swiftly wrapping up Lucy’s swollen foot/ankle, tying it off, and standing up. “There! The bone should be healed, but you still need to rest as much as possible over the next week. I’ll come and check on it in a few days to see how it’s doing.” The smaller slayer turned towards Carla and nodded at the door, signaling to head out.As they left, Natsu went over to the bed and flopped down next to Lucy and Happy, suddenly drained. Happy saw this and finally peeled himself off Lucy to lay down between she and Natsu. As Natsu and Happy quickly fell asleep, Lucy giggled to herself and joined them, taking a well deserved nap with her best friends.

—————————

The sun was starting to go down as Wendy and Carla walked back to the guild hall, and all Wendy could think about was the weird smell she caught coming from Lucy and Natsu. She stopped in her tracks, to Carla’s surprise.

“Hey Carla, did you smell anything different about Natsu and Lucy just now?” She asked, wanting to make sure she wasn’t crazy.

“Hmmm,” The exceed put a hand to her chin in thought. “There was definitely a different smell about them, but I can’t pinpoint the cause. Maybe they were exposed to something while on the job?”

“That’s probably it, yeah,” Wendy really hoped nothing was wrong with either of them, they were like siblings to her and she loves them more than anything. “Lucy started to smell a lot like Natsu, it was almost like her own scent was disappearing.”

“Don’t worry Wendy, I’m sure it’s nothing. Let’s just get home for now, okay?” The exceed offered, and her dragon slayer soon nodded and the pair started walking again, unsure of what they saw back at Lucy’s apartment but now just in a rush to get back home.


	3. Butting Heads

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Natsu and Lucy keep butting heads. Literally.

_Her moans filled his head until he could think of nothing else, nothing except the way she screamed his name in pleasure as he tasted her. Licking along her slick folds as she squirms, desperate to touch him, to feel more of him, her hands straining against her bindings._

_‘Ah ah ah,’ he tutted, breaking away from her sweet core to reprimand his prize ‘You have to be a good girl, remember Lucy?’the blonde nodded, her face flushed in pleasure and her eyes dark with need. She was the picture of lewdness with her wrists tied together above her head, chest heaving, legs spread wide, and her pussy dripping._

_‘Natsu please,’ she bit her lip. ‘more, I need more.’Natsu leaned down and got back to licking up every last drop of her sweet cum as she screamed his name. He entered two fingers into her dripping core and she lost it. Begging to be fucked, and Natsu soon gave in, lining himself up with her entrance he thrust into her tight, wet cunt._

_‘Natsu,_

_Natsu,_

_NATSU!’_

Bolting up, Natsu rammed his forehead straight into Lucy’s, knocking her backwards onto the floor. It took much longer than it should have to regain his bearings, looking around and finally registering Lucy on the floor, holding her hand to her forehead.

“Oh shit!! Sorry Luce,” getting down onto the floor in front of his best friend, he pulled her hand back to see a decent sized red mark from his thick skull. “Are you okay? I didn’t hurt you, did I?”Natsu reached forward to touch her forehead and flinched, his hand burning where he touched her. Lucy winced and Natsu had to do a double take, worried he had somehow burned her. But no, she looked fine, no burns in sight. Just a growing bump from the impact of his head smacking into hers.

“I’m fine now, I was just worried about you. Your face was red and you were mumbling in your sleep!” Lucy looked away, eyes cast towards the floor. “I thought you might’ve been having a bad dream and wanted to make sure you were okay.”

“Awww you were worried about me?” Natsu gave her a coy look, hoping to deflect a little. Heheard Happy beginning to stir behind him, finally waking up.

“What?! Don’t you turn this on me—” Lucy started, face getting redder by the second.

“Awww you liiiiike him Lucy.” Happy gave her a similar look to Natsu’s, with his hand over his mouth and a knowing smirk on his face.

“Don’t you start too cat!!” She exclaimed, finally picking herself up off the floor she grabbed Happy by the scruff and Natsu by his scarf and dragged them to her front door. Tossing them out onto their butts she yells, “Go home!!” then slams on the door on them. They were just messing around, she didn’t need to throw them out like that.

“C’mon Happy! Let’s go to the guild.” he grumbled, standing up and stomping off. Happy took a quick glance between Natsu and the slammed door before shrugging it off and following after his best friend. Lucy kicked them out all the time, this isn’t any different than normal.

——————

**One Week Later**

Everyone at the guild was ready to strangle Natsu. None more than Gajeel. The fire dragon slayer had been pouting and sulking at the guild hall for the last 6 days while Lucy was staying home to let her injured ankle heal. Apparently she had kicked him out day 1 and wouldn’t let him back in so Natsu was making it everyone else’s problem. After almost an entire week of putting up with his bitching Gajeel was fed up. He stormed over to the salamander, grabbed him by his scarf, and dragged him out of the guild hall before throwing him onto his ass.

“GO SULK AT HOME! COME BACK WHEN YOU STOP BEING A LITTLE BITCH.” Gajeel shouted at him and closed the guild doors behind him. Everyone was staring at him, incredulous. “What? He deserved it and you all know I’m right.” Most of them nodded or shrugged and went back to their drinking, silently glad that Natsu’s bad mood was no longer filling up the hall. Gajeel caught Levy’s worried look at he walked back to their place at the bar, the dragon slayer already knew she was getting ready to offer to go check on Lucy. Goddamn it he loves how kind she is but times like these he can’t help be a little upset. All he wanted to do was spend time with his shrimp but she was needed elsewhere and he knew that he had held Levy back from checking in on Blondie long enough.

“Gajeel, I—” Levy started, her gaze flashing towards the door.

“I know shrimpy, go check on Blondie,” Gajeel sighed, “You should probably stop by the house and grab that book you borrowed from her before heading over as well.” He knew he had said the right thing when the bluenette’s face lit up and she stood up as high on her toes as she could manage and tried to kiss him on the cheek. Gajeel had leaned over instinctively as she did and grumbled a “Yeah, yeah, go on.” The tiny script mage turned and waved with his favorite smile, then dashed out the door. Shit, he loves her so fucking much.

————————

_‘Oh fuck, LUCY.’ the hand gripping her hair tightened, as her tongue swirled over the tip of Natsu’s hard cock, taking him deeper, almost into her throat. One hand held down the dragon slayer’s hips while the other worked whatever Lucy’s mouth couldn’t take. Natsu tried to thrust up into her throat but her hand held him steady. She wanted to take her time with him, show him how much he meant to her, and when he couldn’t wait a second longer she would take in every last drop of cum. Stars she wanted to taste more and more of him, it was almost like she couldn’t get enough, like she would die without it. Lucy started to grind against his leg, chasing her own release as she kept sucking him off. Holy fuck was she getting closer, and she could feel Natsu getting harder against her tongue, and if his moans were any indication, he was even closer than she. Fuck, just a little more, I’m so close, FUCK—_

Lucy woke with a start, and quite frankly, a little disappointment. Although, she wasn’t given much time to reflect on it before there was a soft knock at her door.She gets up from her bed and stretches her arms over her head with a little groan, padding towards the front door. A second knock, slightly louder, had just started when Lucy opened the door. There stood one of her best friends Levy caught mid knock, hand still in the air, Levy flashed a smile and turned the knock into a quick wave.

“Levy! What’s up?”

“Oh! I just wanted to come and check on you!” the bluenette scratched the back of her head, “Your ankle is practically healed now right?” Lucy moved to invite her friend in, and they were soon walking into her kitchen.

“Well, while you’re here, would you like anything to eat?” She started digging through her cupboards, knowing full well that she didn’t have much in the way of food, but wanting to try and find something for her friend anyway. Finally she noticed a red box, and Lucy snatched it up with hope and excitement. “YES!! I found a box of brownie mix, we can make some if you’d like!” Turning towards Levy with a glint of hope in her eyes, Levy couldn’t bring herself to tell her that she’d already eaten at the guild before coming over. “I’ve been really hungry the last couple days, I’ve probably eaten through most of the food in my apartment.” Now it was Lucy’s turn to guiltily scratch the back of her head.

“Have there been any other major changes lately?” Levy questioned, trying to determine how far into the first heat she was. The usual signs were; increased hunger, hotter body temperature, insomnia, and even extreme discomfort when apart from their mate. Which Lucy seemingly has been for the last week or so. The blonde looked up from the batter she’s mixing, and looked almost confused at Levy’s question.

“I mean, it’s been really hard to fall asleep lately. I can’t seem to get comfortable easily haha.” Levy can almost see the sweat dripping from Lucy’s forehead as she answered the question. Somehow she knew that this was going to be much harder than it needed to be.


	4. Interruptions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry i haven't updated in a hot minute, but here is a short chapter to tide y'all over while i work on something a little longer! thank you to everyone who has liked, commented, and read this! your support means so much to me!!!

After the brownies were finished and Lucy had consumed most of them, Levy started to get some useful info out of her about what’s been going on. So far Lucy has exhibited most of the signs for a first mating cycle; fever, higher libido, increased appetite, minor insomnia and physical discomfort when apart from mate, etc. Levy is honestly surprised that Lucy has made it this long without Natsu, it’s almost entirely unheard of for mates to go more than a day or so without each other during a REGULAR mating cycle let alone their first one and let alone almost an entire WEEK without each other. Though she has yet to figure out what triggered it, they clearly haven’t kissed or made any sort of romantic move towards the other. Lucy would’ve told her if they had. Although she can tell that Lucy has become suspicious of Levy’s questions, but not enough to ask anything herself.Levy is so tempted to just spill the beans about all of it - and frankly was about to - but as she opened her mouth to try, Lucy’s front door burst open.

——

Levy had opened her mouth as if to say something important, when the front door to Lucy’s apartment burst open, and for a split second Lucy had hoped it was Natsu. Yeah, she knows that she kicked him out at the beginning of the week but she was really starting to miss him. She almost craved his presence weirdly enough. But it was Erza who had burst in to the apartment, not Natsu. The redhead calming waltzed in and sat down at the small table in the main room next to Lucy and Levy and sighed. The pair just looked at her in suspense, waiting for an explanation, or _anything_ really.

It was Lucy who spoke first, “Heyyyy Erza, what’s up?” She pressed, a little too distracted to truly pay much attention but asking anyway.

“Sorry about that Lucy, had to catch my breath a little. The Thunder God Trio just returned from a mission and the Master decided to throw a party in their honor!” Lucy straightened up a little, (sure parties were no strange thing to Fairy Tail, but having an actual PLANNED party meant the Master going all out, and that was always something to look forward to.) Erza continued, seeing that she had peaked her friends interest, “It was decided that its going to be a costume party and I knew your foot would be healed enough to join in! You have definitely been missed at the guild this last week or so.”The redhead gave Levy a knowing look, the bluenette responding with a warning glance, not wanting her to give away too much.

“Oh! A costume party huh?” Lucy rested her head in her hands in an early defeat, “I don’t even know what I would wear or what I would dress as.” she sighed.

“I HAVE THE BEST IDEA!!” Levy burst out, almost jumping out of her seat in her rush to get up. “Erza and I can help you pick something out!! I already have an idea of what I’m going to wear and Erza can just use her magic to change so we have plenty of time before the party!” She turned towards the Exquip user with a wink, hoping she understood the message. Thankfully it seems like the normally obtuse woman caught on and also burst out of her seated position on the floor.

Reaching a hand down for their compatriot, Erza asks “What do you say Lucy?”

The celestial mage grabs onto her hand and lets herself be pulled onto her feet, and nodded, a little nervous about possibly seeing Natsu again. But definitely a little excited.

Well, maybe a little more than a little.


End file.
